NEW HORIZONS
Supporting Women of Color NEW offers resources for communities of color in an unprecedented time IF THERE IS a bit of sunlight shining on this unprecedented year, it is a renewed focus on dismantling the racism that permeates American culture. 2020 has become a reckoning point for so many, a moment where the country has at last acknowledged that being anti-racist, rather than simply “not racist,” is the key to an equal future for all of us.
By Sarah Alter, President & CEO, Network of Executive Women
I am reminded how vulnerable we feel this year. As we live through a global pandemic that has hit BIPOCs the hardest of all, the real suffering it has brought has permeated the bubble of privilege those of us who are white Americans have been living in. When pain comes to our doorstep, we are more understanding of the pain of others — awakened to the suffering they feel. And many are now waking up to the need for concrete action.
NEW’s Support for Women of Color NEW’s mission is to Advance All Women. Whatever has happened in 2020, we
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have not changed — it has always been our goal to transform workplaces for equality. Instead, the culture around us has changed. There is now a tailwind behind us and the work we do. When NEW published our Advancing All Women study, we found that, without intervention, the number of women of color in senior positions would drop over the next 10 years. Dismantling the systemic racism that has held women of color out of our boardrooms will take work, and that is exactly the sort of work NEW is here to support. This year, we released our Latinas in Corporate America study, which showed a real disconnect between Latinas and their mostly white male superiors. This lack of understanding of the unique value Latinas bring to corporate environments, of the lived history and cultural experiences they bring to bear, is a key pain point keeping Latina women out of C-suite roles.